Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween to all our Friends & Family!!!

Love, Mike & Melissa & Anne Marie

Weekend trip & Halloween Party & Now...Colds!!

Or at least some of us have a cold. Right now, I'm the only one still hanging on....but I never count myself out -- I just hope that either Mike or Anne Marie get better before I catch it!

Friday we left to visit some of my family. We had not been to visit in a while, and my mom & sister were up to going with us, so we packed the car for a quick overnight stay. It was a wonderful visit and Anne Marie & Cousin Naomi were a "hit". Isn't it funny how adults act silly whenever little kids are around?? I don't often hear grown men playing peak-a-boo..haahaa!

Uncle Gary Playing the "magnet game" with the girls by the fridge.

Playing with cousin Scott & his trains.

Anne Marie "warming up" to Aunt Carol.

Giving Aunt Yvonne a lesson on how to steal cousin Naomi's sippy.

The girls got up WAY to early @ the hotel!!

Mike and I left Saturday afternoon since we had a Halloween party to attend hosted by some friends of ours. We noticed that "somebody" was a little fussy & had a runny nose, so I knew this wasn't a good sign. She slept most of the way home, and we changed immediately into our "costumes" and went to the party. Since we were already 1/2 hour late, and knew we would be, Mike and I came up with our costume idea at the hotel the day before. Anne Marie was a cute little ladybug (gotta love that costume!!) See if you can guess what we were (look a couple pictures down to guess) ........

The "Host with the Most" - "Count Chocula"

Our Cutie pie w/ princess Kate & her horse -- & Cutie "sneaking" a little candy!

Can you guess?????

Mike= Quarter Back!! Melissa = Smartie Pants!!

Once the kids realized candy was on my jeans - they were all over me!

Just a few pictures of adults & kids in great costumes having a little fun!!

Happy 12th Anniversary !!

October 21 was our 12th wedding anniversary. WOW! 12 years. It sometimes just doesn't seem that long, and then some days it seems like 40! (haa) I'm sure Mike would say the same thing. When we talk about being 24 and married it just seems like forever-ago. Doesn't 24 seem too young now?? (haa)

Our life together has had ups and downs. Through all of these we have grown. Now added to this family we have a wonderful, beautiful, smart, yet very "obstinate" child. (haa haa --- anyone remember that word from her referral?) Could life be any better?


To my husband: Thanks for being my wonderful husband, thank you for going through all these times with me, and thank you for believing God had a greater purpose in our life than just the two of us!!


The night of our anniversary was a Sunday night. Mike has to be at work at 2:00 a.m., so he's usually off to bed VERY early! That day after Church he came home and took a little nap -- then that night he put Anne Marie to bed at 7:00p.m. and said he had a special surprise for me. We had decided not to get gifts for each other this year as we are on a "new budget" and trying to finish our basement - so this is where we're putting most of our "extra" money.


Well, he said since our anniversary present was the basement, we were going to "celebrate" in it. He lead me to the partially finished basement (drywall,drywall-mud, drywall dust, unfinished doors -- but better than our old cement bricks) Well, there was, to my surprise, a beautiful area with candles, white table cloth, music, and a lovely dinner created all by my husband. Well, after a while you didn't realize you were even in the basement. He has music from years ago that we used to listen to all the time, and it was a special dinner -- just the two of us -- not that Anne Marie isn't the most fun little person in the world, but it's weird how funny it felt just to have the two of us sit down to dinner alone!!


I'm sure he'd be a little embarrassed if I posted the pictures on line -- but I'm going to anyway, because I thought it was just too sweet!!!

Happy Anniversary Mike!!!

1 Year Ago....

As many of you know just 1 year ago (10/20/06) we lost my father. One of the hardest things about losing my father last October was the he missed seeing Anne Marie's referral by 1 month. I fought with myself about writing this in our blog. Part of the reason we have the blog is to keep up with our China friends, our family, and so that Anne Marie can go back one day and read all the neat things that we did in her life when she was a little girl. So, I decided that this was something that I wanted to post, as my father was such a huge part of our adoption process.

My dad was probably more excited about his new granddaughter than anyone we knew. He was a huge part of the process, and even did a little video clip introducing himself to her in December of 05. Part of me rejoices in the fact that he is with our Heavenly Father free of all the medical issues he had here on earth. Yet, as a human & a daughter, part of me is still so sad that he was not able to meet her & she will never "personally" know him. Mike and I will however, do everything in our power to let her know the love he had for her before she was even born!!

We miss you Dad!-- Love - Mis, Mike & Anne Marie

Like Mother Like Daughter

Ok -- so I tried to "re-create" this childhood picture by memory with Anne Marie.

My mom still had this picture @ her house and when I put my childhood dress on Anne Marie. Obviously there was no way to do it exact, being that the chair no longer exists, and a few other differences, but still fun to try to do all the same.

But beyond that -- I have to say I think that this is TOO cute! (She is much cuter than I am of course!) It really is quite cool that my mom kept this dress so that I could re-create this picture with my daughter.

I was a little younger than Anne Marie @ the time my picture was taken. On the back my mom has written "Melissa before baptism". I don't know if this dress will make it another 30 years. There are a few threads coming out of the smocking, and the fabric is quite thin now, but I'm putting this dress in Anne Marie's "memory box" we've started to create for her. (Along with the dress we had her dedicated in.)

Thanks for the memories, Mom!!

"Then"

"Now"

Finally Beach Pictures & Much Much More!!

Finally!!! Pictures are developed & scanned into the computer! I checked one more time when I went back to the store to make sure someone didn't turn in our disk. NO! Well, I just hope that when the person who took it was deleting the pictures they felt GUILT while doing it! I'm just happy to say that I think I did get a few really good pictures and I'm just glad that I was able to print these!

We've been busy since we've been home from the beach - we've been to the apple orchard, we've been to the pumpkin patch, and we've been to Grandma H's house to play with the new PlaySchool Kitchen she bought.

It's amazing the number of pictures we take on a daily basis in this house -- it's hard to keep up, so I apologize for a LONG post today, but I wanted to share these pictures! I used to scrap-book, but now I just find really cute albums with the "memo section" in them to make sure that I can write memories of each picture.





Family Picture on the Beach.





Dad & Anne Marie on the dunes.



Our Surfer girl -- she LOVED Mike to pull her in the water on the board.






Loving the Beach!!

October 6, 2007 -- Apple Orchard

Anne Marie helping Daddy pick apples.





Climbing the tree -- "don't do this @ home"!





"I've found it .. the perfect apple!"

October 12, 2007 -- Pumpkin Patch

Even the small ones are a little heavy!!




Our friends Elsie & Mattie with Anne Marie & their pumpkins.

Grandma's House & The New Kitchen!

"Oh this is SO much fun!"




Cooking up a "treat" and having too much fun!!


** I hope that the rest of our post won't be this long, but I figured that I should just post all of the pictures in ONE BIG post instead of putting a new one out there each day! Here's hoping that I can keep up from now on! **


Melissa & Mike & Anne Marie

Week @ The Beach - And No Pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just returned home from spending a week at the beach. We had a great time. Anne Marie could not have enjoyed herself more! The weather was beautiful, and we were sad that we had to come home.

Well, tonight we went to get some of our pictures developed -- and I think I've just done the dumbest thing I've ever done. I left the camera disk in the machine @ the store. I did order some of the prints (they should be here in two days). However, I did NOT order all of them, and when I called the store back tonight, they have informed me that no one turned in our disk and it was not in the machine any longer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

I just want to cry at this point. Best news is I did get to order some of the prints -- all but about 40 or so of them (we took at over 100 pictures). But I wanted to print the others later .. we had great pictures of Anne Marie's foot prints in the sand, and I didn't print those. (SO SAD!)

Anyway, I guess I need to be thankful that the memories are fresh in my mind and we did print quite a few pictures... so I'll scan the pictures when they come in & I'll post some of them then!